Electronic document circulating system

ABSTRACT

In an electronic document circulating system utilizing a network, in order to attain simplification of the operation procedure by a transmitting person and facilitation of the temporary circulation of a document, a circulation control unit circulates the circular document indicated by document management information stored in a document management information store unit on the basis of circulation control information indicative of a circular route of the circular document stored in a circulation control information store unit and role definition information for relating a plurality of users to a role shared among equal users stored in a role definition information store unit. In the circulation, the circular document is transmitted to a user selected by the system on the basis of a predetermined criterion, of users in the role designated by the transmitting person. When the document is transmitted temporarily for consultation, temporary circulation control information is set and the document is returned to a consulting user exactly.

This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 08/531,620,filed on Sep. 21, 1995 now abandoned.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is related to U.S. application Ser. No. 08/531,652,filed Sep. 21, 1995, abandoned being filed based on the Japanese PatentApplication No. 06-226257 filed Sep. 21, 1994, and being assigned to thepresent assignee, the subject matter of which is incorporated herein byreference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to an electronic document circulating system andmore particularly to an electronic document circulating system utilizinga communication management system and a file sharing system in a networksystem.

Heretofore, as the electronic document circulating system can utilizeany document, a circular route or path of a document is defined in orderof duties such as "preparation", "examination", and "approval" and aplurality of users who perform operations corresponding to the"preparation", the "examination and the "approval" are previouslydefined in a duty table separately from the definition of the circularroute. For example, JP-A-2-278458 discloses an electronic documentcirculating system in which when a document is to be transmitted to auser who performs an operation corresponding to the "examination", atransmitting person or a transmitter changes a designation of a user ata transmission destination if necessary on the basis of a list of usersat circular destinations automatically determined in accordance with apreviously defined decision rule of circular destination and the userthen responds to a system to thereby complete the transmission of thedocument to the user. The decision rule of circular destination isinformation capable of changing the designation of the user at thecircular destination in accordance with an amount of money for acontract in the document and of deciding a user having an identifier inthe duty table coincident with a kind of the document and a preparingperson's post as a user at a circular destination.

The prior art does not consider the case where the transmitter is notrequired to confirm the designation of the user at a transmissiondestination upon transmission of a document particularly, the case wherethere is no necessity that the user at a transmission destination isuniquely limited and the like as in the case where any user may beapplied as far as the user at the transmission destination is a user whoperforms the process corresponding to the same duty. For example, it isassumed that the assessment work of contract that several thousands ofcontract documents must be assessed in a day is performed smoothly. Inthis case, if an amount of contract documents assessable by one personin a day is assumed to be several hundreds of cases, ten persons whohave the equal power and can perform the equal assessment are required.In this case, the transmitter who has prepared the contract document tobe assessed by the assessment person is not required to confirm who isan assessment person at the transmission destination of the contractdocument. In the prior art, however, the transmitter had to assign theassessment work to ten persons in accordance with the number describedin the document so that the user at the circular destination coulddecide uniquely by using the decision rule of circular destination.Accordingly, there was a problem that it took time to prepare such adecision rule of circular destination and the transmitter had to confirmthe designation of the user at the transmission destinationunnecessarily.

Further, when the transmitter changed the designation of the user at thetransmission designation, the transmitter could not understood theallocation and the burden to the user at the transmission destination ofthe transmitted documents. Further, there was a problem that when thetransmitter wanted to transmit the document again to the user at thetransmission destination who took charge of treatment of the documentbefore, the transmitter had to change the designation of the user at thetransmission destination after confirmation of the user's historyindicating whether the user made the treatment or not.

Further, when the transmitter was to consult with another user who wasnot contained in the circular list during circulation of a document, itwas necessary to perform the complicated designation that the user to beconsulted was inserted into a list of the transmission destination ofthe document and the transmitter himself was inserted into the list soas to return the document to the transmitter again. In addition, therewas a possibility that when the user to be consulted was empowered tochange the transmission destination in the circular list, thedesignation was changed so that the transmitted document was notreturned to the transmitter himself.

Furthermore, there was a problem that the transmitter had to necessarilydefine a proxy in the case where the document could not be treated byreason that the user at the transmission destination was absent.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to solve the aboveproblems by providing an electronic document circulating system capableof attaining simplification of the operation procedure by a transmittingperson and facilitation of the temporary circulation of a document.

The electronic document circulating system according to the presentinvention are characterized as follows:

(1) When a transmitting person does not confirm the designation of auser at a transmission destination upon transmission of a circulardocument, one specific user at the transmission destination is decidedautomatically in accordance with previously defined circulation controlinformation.

(2) In the above item (1), one specific user at the transmissiondestination is decided automatically in accordance with a predeterminedselection criterion or a transmission history.

(3) Without confirmation of the designation of the user at thetransmission destination by the transmitting person, the circulardocument transmitted to a role (described later) is transmitted inresponse to a reception request from any user belonging to the role, tothe user issuing the reception request.

(4) When a certain user consults with another user about the circulardocument, temporary circulation is made to a consulted user. Thereafter,the circulation is returned to the previously defined original circularroute and the normal circulation of the circular document is made.

(5) The user at the transmission destination of the circular document isselected properly in accordance with the working state set individuallyto the role or the user.

1! In order to achieve the above object, the electronic documentcirculating system of the present invention for circulating anelectronic circular document by means of a plurality of computerterminals interconnected through a network, comprises a circulationcontrol information store unit for previously storing circulationcontrol information for specifying a circular route of the circulardocument, a role definition information store unit for storing roledefinition information for defining a role for managing the circulardocument transmitted to any of equal users, and a circulation controlunit for circulating a designated circular document in accordance withthe circular route on the basis of contents of the circulation controlinformation store unit and the role definition information store unit.

2! In the above item 1!, when the circular document has been transmittedto a certain role, the circulation control unit transmits the circulardocument to a specific user selected from the role on the basis of apredetermined selection criterion of the user at the transmissiondestination.

3! In the above item 1!, when the circular document has been transmittedto a role from a user who does not belong to the role or when anunprocessed circular document has been transmitted to a role from a userbelonging to the role, the circulation control unit informs all usersbelonging to the role of the incoming of the circular document. Thecirculation control unit transmits the circular document in response toa reception request of the circular document from any user belonging tothe role, to the user.

4! In any of the above items 1! to 3!, there is further provided atemporary circulation control information store unit for storingtemporary circulation control information for specifying a temporarycircular route. When the temporary circular route is designated duringcirculation of the circular document, the circulation control unitcirculates the circular document in accordance with the temporarycircular route on the basis of contents of the temporary circulationcontrol information store unit and the role definition information storeunit. Thereafter, the circulation control unit circulates the circulardocument in accordance with the original circular route on the basis ofcontents of the circulation control information store unit and the roledefinition information store unit.

(1) In the electronic document circulating system of the presentinvention, by designating the role as the transmission destination, thetransmitting person of the document is not required to confirm or modifythe designation of a specific user at the transmission destination, sothat the operation procedure of the transmitting person concerning thetransmission of the document can be simplified.

(2) In the above item (1), the circulation control unit can designate anequal user at the transmission destination belonging to the role so thatthe allocation rate or burden defined by the predetermined selectioncriterion of the user at the transmission destination is attained.Consequently, the operation procedure of the transmitting personrelative to the transmission of the document can be simplified and theoptimum of the whole processing efficiency including the circulation ofthe document can be attained.

(3) In the above item (1), the circulation control unit enables eachuser belonging to a role to select any document in accordance with theuser's own ability or burden from the documents transmitted to the role.Consequently, simplification of the operation procedure of thetransmitting person relative to the transmission of the document and theoptimum of the whole processing efficiency including the circulation ofthe document can be attained.

(4) In any of the above items (1) to (3), with the temporary circulationcontrol information store unit for storing temporary circulation controlinformation for specifying a temporary circular route, the temporarycircular route is designated without modification of the originalcircular route and the circular document is transmitted to any user.After consultation or questions and answers to the user, the circulardocument can be returned to the original circular route exactly andaccordingly the processing quality can be improved without reduction ofthe whole processing efficiency including the circulation of thedocument.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a networksystem to which the electronic document circulating system of thepresent invention is applied;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram schematically illustrating the functionalconfiguration of embodiments of the electronic document circulatingsystem according the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing operation attending on a request ofstarting the circulation of a document from a client in a firstembodiment of the electronic document circulating system of the presentinvention;

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing operation of the document transmissionprocess in the first embodiment of the electronic document circulatingsystem of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing operation of the document transmissionrequest in the first embodiment of the electronic document circulatingsystem of the present invention;

FIG. 6 shows an example of information stored in a circular informationstore unit in the first embodiment of the electronic documentcirculating system of the present invention;

FIG. 7 shows an example of information stored in a role definitioninformation store unit in the first embodiment of the electronicdocument circulating system of the present invention;

FIG. 8 shows an example of information stored in a document managementinformation store unit in the first embodiment of the electronicdocument circulating system of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a block diagram schematically illustrating the functionalconfiguration of a second embodiment of the electronic documentcirculating system of the present invention;

FIG. 10 shows an example of role information of role definitioninformation stored in a role definition information store unit in thesecond embodiment of the electronic document circulating system of thepresent invention;

FIG. 11 shows an example of user information of the role definitioninformation stored in the role definition information store unit in thesecond embodiment of the electronic document circulating system of thepresent information;

FIG. 12 is a block diagram schematically illustrating the functionalconfiguration of a third embodiment of the electronic documentcirculating system of the present invention;

FIG. 13 shows an example of information stored in a document managementinformation store unit and a temporary circulation control informationstore unit in the third embodiment of the electronic documentcirculating system of the present invention;

FIG. 14 is a block diagram schematically illustrating the functionalconfiguration of a fourth embodiment of the electronic documentcirculating system of the present invention; and

FIG. 15 shows an example of information stored in a role definitioninformation store unit in the fourth embodiment of the electronicdocument circulating system of the present information.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

First of all, an electronic document circulating system of the presentinvention is described generally. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagramillustrating an example of a network system to which the electronicdocument circulating system of the present invention is applied. In FIG.1, a server machine 1 is connected to a plurality of client machines 2ato 2d through a network 3. Stored in the server machine 1 is a serverprogram 5 for implementing the function of the server machine. Further,the server machine 1 is connected to a database 6. Similarly, stored inthe client machines 2a to 2d are client programs 5a to 5d forimplementing the functions of the client machines, respectively. Users4a to 4d can utilize the client machines 2a to 2d , respectively, totransmit and receive a circular document among the users.

In FIG. 1, only four client machines are shown in order to describe theconfiguration simply, while a multiplicity of client machines areconnected through the network actually. Further, only one network 3 isalso shown but the users may be connected through a plurality ofnetworks to each other.

The electronic document circulating system according to the firstembodiment of the present invention basically includes a circulationcontrol information store unit in which circulation control informationfor designating a circular route or path of an electronic circulardocument is previously stored, a role definition information store unitin which role definition information for relating a document receivingtray (hereinafter referred to as "role") shared by a plurality of equalusers who perform the same duty to the plurality of users who share therole is previously stored, and a circulation control unit fortransmitting the circular document to a next transmission destinationdetermined on the basis of the circulation control information and therole definition information.

When the user starts the circulation of a specific document, the userprepares a document body and designates a definition name of a circularroute and a circulation start node (the user's own node) to issue acirculation start request. When the circulation control unit receivesthe circulation start request from the user (client), the circulationcontrol unit prepares document management information corresponding tothe document body. The circular document is constituted by the documentbody and the document management information. The document managementinformation includes an identifier of the circulation controlinformation (for designating any of a plurality of types of previouslydefined circulation control information (routes) to perform thecirculation on the basis of the designated route), an identifier of acirculation start node (for designating a position (hereinafter referredto as a "node") in a circular route from which the circulation isstarted), a circulation start role name, and an identifier of acirculation start user (that is, the user requesting the circulation).Further, as described later, a column for the node identifier, the roleidentifier and the user identifier is rewritten by the circulationcontrol unit during the circulation.

The circulation control information includes a selection criterion forselecting a user at a transmission destination of the circular documentfrom the users belonging to the role in the circulation controlinformation. The circulation control information is prepared by the userinto a text format by means of a text editor and is then registered intothe circulation control information store unit by means of exclusiveregistration means in the electronic document circulating system.

An allocation rate for each user in each role can be defined in the roledefinition information. The role information, the user information andthe related information of the role and the user are stored in the roledefinition information store unit into a table format by means ofexclusive registration means provided by the function and the GUI(Graphical User Interface).

The circulation control information includes the role name of thetransmission destination, the selection criterion of the user at thetransmission destination and the node identifier of a next transmissiondestination from the circulation control unit in each node in thecirculation control information. Further, when the "sequence" describedlater is designated as the selection criterion, the node informationincludes the identifier of the user who is the transmission destinationfrom the circulation control unit in the circular document in the nodeat the last time. In addition, the user may prepare the document body byusing a software of wordprocessors, a table calculation software, animage data preparing software and the like.

When the circulation control unit receives a transmission request fromthe user to a next node, the circulation control unit acquires thecirculation control information specified by the identifier of thecirculation control information set in the document managementinformation constituting the circular document and retrieves the nodeinformation specified by the node identifier set in the documentmanagement information from the circulation control information. Thecirculation control unit then acquires a node identifier of a nexttransmission destination set in the node information and retrieves thenode information specified by the next node identifier from thecirculation control information. Finally, the circulation control unitacquires the role name of the transmission destination and the selectioncriterion of the user at the transmission destination from the next nodeinformation retrieved above. Thereafter, the role definition informationspecified by the role name is retrieved from the role definitioninformation store unit and a list of users related to the role isacquired. One user at the transmission destination is selected from thelist of users on the basis of the selection criterion of the user at thetransmission destination.

There are six kinds of selection criteria of the user at thetransmission destination as follows:

(1) Random

(2) Sequence

(3) Allocation Rate

(4) Burden

(5) Recursive

(6) Priority Order

As described above, the circulation control unit selects the user at thetransmission destination on the basis of the selection criterion of theuser at the transmission destination set in the specified circulationcontrol information and transmits the circular document to the user atthe transmission destination. Thus, the identifier of the documentmanagement information constituting the circular document is added to alist of unprocessed documents in the user information specified by theidentifier of the user at the transmission destination at the time oftransmission. The circulation control unit deletes the identifier of thepertinent document management information from the list of unprocesseddocuments when the user at the transmission destination completes theprocess of the transmitted circular document and requests thecirculation control unit to perform transmission to a next user or tocomplete the circulation.

In a second embodiment of the electronic document circulating system ofthe present invention, the node information of the transmissiondestination which the circulation control unit refers to includes a rolename of a transmission destination (that is, the designation which doesnot use the transmission to a specific user in the role) in the samemanner as in the first embodiment. In addition, the identifier of thedocument management information constituting the unprocessed circulardocument transmitted to the role is set in the list of unprocesseddocuments in the role information. Thus, any user in the role can takeout and process the unprocessed circular documents in the role. Further,set in the user information is a user's authority attribute indicatingwhether the user is a system manager or a common user.

The circulation control unit retrieves the role definition informationhaving the coincident role name from the role definition informationstore unit and adds the identifier of the document managementinformation to the list of unprocessed documents of the role definitioninformation. When any user belonging to the role requests to take outthe unprocessed document from the role, the circulation control unitdeletes the identifier of the document management information from thelist of unprocessed documents in the role definition information andadds the identifier of the document management information to the listof unprocessed documents in the user information about the user in therole who has performed the request. Further, when the user requests toreturn the circular document to the role, the circulation control unitdeletes the identifier of the document management information from thelist of unprocessed documents in the user information about the user whohas performed the request and acquires the role name in the documentmanagement information of the circular document. Then, the circulationcontrol unit adds the document management information to the list ofunprocessed documents of the role definition information having thecoincident role name.

Further, a user who can take out an unprocessed circular document from arole is only a user belonging to the role and a user who can return thecircular document to the role is only a user having the circulardocument registered in the list of unprocessed documents. However, theuser having the authority of the system manager can return theunprocessed document of another user to the role and take out theunprocessed document from the role to transmit it to any user belongingto the role. In this case, whether the user has the authority of thesystem manager or not is examined by the attribute of the user'sauthority in the user information described above.

In a third embodiment of the electronic document circulating system ofthe present invention, when a user A requests to consult with anotheruser B about a circular document, the circulation control unit adds theidentifier of the consulting user A and the identifier of the user B tobe consulted to a list of consulting persons in the document managementinformation constituting the circular document as a set of identifiers.Thereafter, the identifier of the document management information isdeleted from the list of unprocessed documents of the user informationabout the requesting user A and the identifier of the documentmanagement information is added to the list of unprocessed documents ofthe user information about the user B to be consulted. Further, when theuser B requests to consult with another user C, the circulation controlunit adds the identifier of the consulting user B and the identifier ofthe user C to be consulted to the list of consulting persons in thedocument management information constituting the circular document as aset of identifiers in the same manner as above. Thereafter, theidentifier of the document management information is deleted from thelist of unprocessed documents of the user information about therequesting user B and the identifier of the document managementinformation is added to the list of unprocessed documents of the userinformation about the user C to be consulted. When the user C completesthe process and further does not consult with another user, thecirculation control unit deletes the finally registered set ofidentifiers of the consulting user B and the user C to be consulted fromthe list of consulting persons of the document management information.Thereafter, the identifier of the document management information isdeleted from the list of unprocessed documents of the user informationabout the user C to be consulted and the identifier of the documentmanagement information is added to the list of unprocessed documents ofthe user information coincident with the identifier of the consultinguser. The same process is performed for the consulted user B by theconsulting user A. As described above, after the identifiers of theconsulting user and the consulted user first registered in the list ofconsulting persons are deleted, the circular document is returned to theuser A (first consulting user) of the first designated circular route.Thereafter, the circular document is circulated in accordance with thefirst circular route.

In a fourth embodiment of the electronic document circulating system ofthe present invention, a working attribute can be set to each of theuser information, the role definition information and the informationfor relating the role to the user. The common user can modify only theuser's own working attribute and the user having the manager's authorityof the above system can modify all of the user's working attributes.When the user is designated as a user at the transmission destination ofthe circular document, the circulation control unit refers to theworking attribute set in the user information about the user. As theresult of the reference, when it is possible to work, the circulardocument is transmitted to the user and when it is impossible to work,the circular document is not transmitted. When the role is designated asa transmission destination of the circular document and there is adefinition for automatically transmitting the circular document to auser in the role, the circulation control unit refers to the workingattribute set in the role definition information. As the result of thereference, when it is possible to work, a user at a transmissiondestination is decided in accordance with the predetermined selectioncriterion of the user at the transmission destination and when it isimpossible to work, transmission to the user is not made. At this time,the circulation control unit refers to both of the working attribute setin the information for relating the role to the user and the workingattribute set in the user information. As the result of the reference,the user having the working attribute indicating that working ispossible is selected as the user at the transmission destination in bothcases, and when there is no user having the working attribute indicatingthat working is possible in both cases, transmission to the user is notmade. Further, the process corresponding to "transmission is not made"is assumed to be the process that the document management informationconstituting the circular document is deleted from the list ofunprocessed documents in the user information about the user at thetransmission destination and is added to the list of unprocesseddocuments of the user information about the system manager.

The system manager has the authority to modify the working attributeabout all users and transmit the document to any node of the circularroute. Further, as another processing method, a processing method inwhich registration of the circular document is left in the list ofunprocessed documents in the user information about the user at thetransmission request destination or a processing method in which thecircular document is added to the list of unprocessed documents in therole definition information or the user information at the transmissiondestination but the process to the circular document is suppressed untilthe state that the working is possible is reestablished may be adopted.

The embodiments of the electronic document circulating system of thepresent invention are now described in detail with reference to theaccompanying drawings.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram schematically illustrating the functionalconfiguration of the first embodiment of the electronic documentcirculating system of the present invention. In FIG. 2, a circulationcontrol information store unit 11 in which circulation controlinformation for controlling which user receives an electronic circulardocument and to which user the received document is transmitted ispreviously stored, a role definition information store unit 12 in whichthe role definition information for relating a role to a plurality ofusers is previously stored, and a document management information storeunit 13 in which the document management information for managing adocument to be circulated is stored are connected to a circulationcontrol unit 14 which refers to the circulation control information andthe role definition information to decide a next transmissiondestination and transmit the circular document. The circulation controlinformation store unit 11, the role definition information store unit 12and the document management information store unit 13 are provided in adatabase such as, for example the database 6 which the server machine 1can refer to. However, the store units 11 to 13 may be provided in theserver machine 1 logically and may be provided in a disk device of anymachine of the network 3 physically. Further, the circulation controlunit 14 of FIG. 2 is included in the server program 5.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing operation attending on a request ofstarting the circulation of a document from a client in the firstembodiment of the electronic document circulating system of the presentinvention. In FIG. 3, when the user requires logging-in to theelectronic document circulating system from a related client (step 21),the circulation control unit of the client informs the circulationcontrol unit 14 of a server of the logging-in by utilizing thecommunication management system (step 22). At the subsequent step 23,the circulation control unit 14 of the server starts a child-process forprocessing the requirement from the client. At this time, thechild-process retrieves the user information of the requiring user fromthe user information of the role definition information store unit 12and when the pertinent user information is not detected, it is assumedthat there is no authority of utilization and the logging-in isrejected. On the other hand, when the pertinent user information isdetected, the relation information having the identifier coincident withthe user information identifier of the requiring user is retrieved fromthe relation information between the role information and the userinformation of the role definition information store unit 12 and theretrieved relation information is stored in a memory. Thereafter, allrequirements from the requiring client are informed to the child-processof the circulation control unit 14 of the server and are processed inthe child-process.

When the user requires the list of the circulation control informationin which the user himself is included in the circular route, of thepreviously defined circulation control information (step 24), thechild-process of the circulation control unit 14 of the server retrievesthe relation information coincident with the identifier of the userinformation of the requiring user from the relation informationpreviously defined between the user information of the role definitioninformation store unit 12 and the circulation control information of thecirculation control information store unit 11. Further, the relationinformation coincident with the identifier of the role information ofthe role belonging to the requiring role is retrieved from the relationinformation previously defined between the circulation controlinformation and the role information of the role definition informationstore unit 12, so that the relation information is returned to the useras the list of the circulation control information in which the user isincluded in the circular route (step 25).

When the user selects one of the circulation control information andrequires the list of nodes in which the circulation can be started (step26), the child-process of the circulation control unit 14 of the serverretrieves the node information in which the processing person in thenode information is coincident with the role name or the user name ofthe requiring user and having the node attribute in which thecirculation can be started, from the node information in the circulationcontrol information and returns it to the user as the list of nodes inwhich the circulation can be started (step 27).

Finally, the identifier of the circulation control information, theidentifier of the circulation start node information (to which the userhimself belongs) and a path name of the previously prepared document aredesignated and the user requires to start the circulation of thedocument (step 28). At the subsequent step 29, the circulation controlunit of the client transfers the designated document to the server. Thechild-process of the circulation control unit 14 of the server inputsthe circulation control information coincident with the identifier ofthe designated circulation control information from the circulationcontrol information store unit 11. Then, the node information coincidentwith the identifier of the circulation start node is inputted from thecirculation control information and it is confirmed from this nodeinformation that the user can prepare the document at the circulationstart node. The circulation control unit 14 prepares document managementinformation to set the path name of the document on the server to thedocument management information and sets the identifier of thedesignated circulation control information, the identifier of thecirculation start user information and the identifier of the circulationstart node information to the document management information.Thereafter, the circulation control unit 14 adds the identifier of thedocument management information to a transmission request queue.

With the above processing operation, the operation of starting thecirculation of the document from the client to the server is completed.The user requiring starting of the circulation prepares the circulardocument.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing operation of a transmission process ofthe document after the user has prepared or processed the document inthe first embodiment of the electronic document circulating system ofthe present invention. In FIG. 4, when a daemon of the circulationcontrol unit 14 which continues to operate on the server machine so thatthe daemon can always receive a request from the client receives theidentifier of the document management information from the transmissionrequest queue (step 31), the daemon receives the document managementinformation coincident with the identifier. Thus, the daemon receivesthe circulation control information coincident with the identifier ofthe circulation control information in the document managementinformation from the circulation control information store unit 11 (step32). The daemon of the circulation control unit 14 retrieves the nodeinformation coincident with the identifier of the node information inthe document management information from the circulation controlinformation and acquires the identifier of the node information of anext node constituting the transmission destination (step 33). Thedaemon of the circulation control unit 14 retrieves the next nodeinformation from the circulation control information and acquires aselection method of a next role name of the transmission destination anda user in the role (step 34). In the subsequent step 35, the daemon ofthe circuit control unit 14 receives the role information coincidentwith the role name from the role definition information store unit 12and retrieves the list of users related to the role information from therelation information between the role information and the userinformation.

At step 36, the daemon of the circuit control unit 14 selects one of theuser information from the list of users in accordance with the selectionmethod (user selection criterion) acquired at step 34 as follows:

(1) When the "Random" is acquired as the selection method:

The circulation control unit 14 selects one of user information from thelist of users at random.

(2) When the "Sequence" is acquired as the selection method:

The circuit control unit 14 acquires the identifier of the userinformation corresponding to the user (the user at the transmissiondestination at the last time) to whom the circular document has beentransmitted from the circulation control unit at the node at the lasttime from the node information received at step 34. Thereafter, theidentifier of the user at the transmission destination at the last timeis retrieved from the list of users and the user informationcorresponding to the user registered next to the user at thetransmission destination at the last time in the list is selected as theuser at the transmission destination. Further, the identifier of theselected user information is set in the node information received instep 34.

(3) When the "Allocation Rate" is acquired as the selection method:

The circulation control unit 14 selects one of the user information inaccordance with the randomization weighted on the basis of theallocation rate previously defined in the attribute of the relationinformation of the role and the user from the list of users.

(4) When the "Burden" is acquired as the selection method:

The circulation control unit 14 receives the user information in thelist of users successively and acquires the number of unprocesseddocuments of each user in the role. Then, the circulation control unitcalculates the burden on each user in accordance with the equation of(the number of unprocessed documents)±(the sum total of unprocesseddocuments)×100. Then, a burden value previously set in the attribute ofthe relation information of the role and the user is subtracted from theburden value obtained by the above calculation and the user informationhaving the difference thereof being maximum is selected.

(5) When the "Recursive" is acquired as the selection method:

The circulation control unit 14 acquires the identifier of the userprocessed before in the role from the document management informationand selects the user information coincident with the identifier of theuser processed just before in the role from the list of users.

(As other selection methods, there are a method in which whentransmission is made to the same node at and after the second time, theuser processed before in the node is selected, a method in which when agroup is defined as the recursive definition of the node of thecirculation control unit 14, the circulation control unit 14 records anidentifier of the group or the node identifier in the documentmanagement information upon transmission of the document and acquiresthe user processed before in the node having the same group identifierin the node of the recursive designation to select the user, and thelike.)

(6) When the "Priority Order" is acquired as the selection method:

The circulation control unit 14 acquires the identifier of the user(user at the transmission destination with priority) to which thedocument is to be transmitted by priority from the document managementinformation and then selects the user coincident with the identifierfrom the list of users. The identifier of the user at the transmissiondestination with priority is set by the circulation control unit 14 whena transmitting person of a document previously requires setting of thename of the user at the transmission destination with priority.

Finally, after the daemon of the circulation control unit 14 sets theidentifier of the selected user information, the identifier of the roleand the identifier of the next node to the document managementinformation, the daemon of the circulation control unit 14 sets theidentifier of the document management information to the list ofunprocessed documents of the user information and deletes the documentmanagement information from the transmission request queue (step 37).

Thereafter, the processings of steps 31 to 37 are repeated until thetransmission request queue is reduced to zero and the transmissionrequest queue is then monitored at intervals of one second, for example.

With the above processing operation, the operation of the documenttransmission processing is completed.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing the operation in case where a userrequires to transmit the user's own unprocessed document in the firstembodiment of the electronic document circulating system of the presentinvention. In FIG. 5, at a first step 41, the user performs logging-into the electronic document circulating system from the client (thelogging-in processing is the same as that at steps 21 to 23 of FIG. 3and description thereof is omitted). When the user requires to acquirethe list of unprocessed documents (step 42), the child-process of thecirculation control unit 14 of the server acquires the list ofunprocessed documents of the user information coincident with theidentifier of the requiring user from the role definition informationstore unit 12 and returns it to the user (step 43).

Next, when the user selects one document from the list of unprocesseddocuments and requires to acquire the document (step 44), thechild-process of the circulation control unit 14 of the server receivesthe document management information coincident with the identifier ofthe selected document management information from the documentmanagement information store unit 13 and acquires the path name of theselected document in the server to return it to the user (step 45). Itis assumed that the document in the server exists in the directorydefined by the client side as a network drive and the user can refer tothe document directly from the client. Further, there is another methodin which the selected document is copied to the network drive which theuser can refer to and the path thereof is returned while the user cannotrefer to the path of the document in the server directly.

Finally, when the user requires transmission after the user refers tothe document designated by the above route and performs the necessaryprocess (step 46), the child-process of the circulation control unit 14of the server deletes the identifier of the document managementinformation from the list of unprocessed documents of the userinformation and adds the identifier of the document managementinformation to the transmission request queue (step 47).

With the above processing operation, the operation of requiring totransmit the unprocessed document is completed.

FIG. 6 shows an example of information stored in the circulation controlinformation store unit 11 in the first embodiment of the electronicdocument circulating system of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 6, the circulation control information 51 includes anidentifier "C0000008" peculiar to the circulation control information.In the circulation control information, the node information having thenode identifiers of "node 1", "node 2" and "node 3" is stored in a nodeinformation list 52. The role name of "preparation" and the node type of"start of circulation" are stored for the "node 1", the role name of"examination" and the node type of "processing" for in the "node 2" andthe role name of "approval" and the node type of "processing" for the"node 3". When a user name is defined in the node, the user name isstored in the column of the user name. The node information of each nodeincludes the user information identifier attribute in which anidentifier of the user to which the document has been transmitted fromthe circulation control unit at this node at the last time.

The circulation control information 51 includes a path name of thecirculation information file 53. Stored in the circulation informationfile is all of circulation control information (information which is asource of the above node information, the definition of the circulationroute, the update instruction of the attribute in the documentmanagement information, information indicative of a branch at thecirculation route by reference of the attribute in the documentmanagement information) defined previously by using a text editor or thelike. For example, in FIG. 6, as the selection method of the user at thetransmission destination, "recursive ("#autodeliver #recursive group1")", "random (#autodeliver #random")", and "sequence ("#autodeliver#sequence")" are defined in the nodes 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Whilenot shown, the same definition may be made for the "allocation", the"burden" and the "priority order". The "group 1" added to the definitionof the "recursive" is a group identifier for defining the node group.For example, in FIG. 6, the definition of the "group 1" may be removed,while the group identifier serves to make it possible to performrecursion of the user between roles having different role names of othernodes and not to perform recursion of any node of a plurality of nodeshaving the same role name defined in the circulation route. In otherwords, the circulation control unit 14 records the group identifier orthe node identifier in the document management information upontransmission of the document, so that the circulation control unit 14acquires and selects the user processed before in the node having thesame group identifier in the node where the recursion is designated. Forexample, in FIG. 6, when the portion of "#role role name" is changed to"#user user name", transmission is made to the designated user insteadof transmission to any user in the role.

The format of the circulation information file 53 is assumed to bechanged to a text format or a table format which is easily utilized froma program. Further, the information except the attribute information forsetting the identifier of the user information transmitted at the nodeat the last time in the node information is the same as that included inthe circulation information file 53. Accordingly, the information issufficiently useful if it is stored in any of the node information list52 or the circulation information file 53. In the example of FIG. 6, theinformation which only the daemon of the circulation control unit 14refers to, such as the selection method of the user in the role, isstored in the circulation information file 53 and the node identifier,the role name and the user name which the client refers to and requiresare stored in the node information list 52 to thereby attain thehigh-speed response to the client.

FIG. 7 shows an example of the information stored in the role definitioninformation store unit 12 in the first embodiment of the electronicdocument circulating system of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 7, the role definition information includes a roletable 61, a user table 62 and a relation table 64 of users belonging toroles. The role table 61 includes role identifiers "C0000015, "C0000020"and "C0000021" and role names of "preparation", "examination" and"approval" are stored in the respective role identifiers. The user table62 includes user identifiers "C0000025", "C0000026", "C0000027","C0000028" and "C0000029" and user names of "kawasaki", "itou","yamada", "maeda" and "tanaka" are stored in the respective useridentifiers. A list 63 of identifiers of the document managementinformation type of the unprocessed documents is stored in each of useridentifier. The relation table 64 of the roles and the users belongingto the roles includes sets of the above role identifiers and useridentifiers and further includes the attributes of the allocation rateand the burden. Further, there are provided a relation table 65 betweenthe roles and the circulation information and a relation table 66between the user information and the circulation information. The roledefinition information provides the function or the GUI to input therole name, the user name and the relation of the roles and the users ofthe role definition information store unit and store them in the roledefinition information store unit 12.

FIG. 8 shows an example of information stored in the document managementinformation store unit in the first embodiment of the electronicdocument circulating system of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 8, a document management information table 71 includesidentifiers "C0000048" and "C0000055" of the document managementinformation and stores a list 73 of path names of the document file,identifier of current node information, current role identifier, currentuser identifier, identifier of user information to be transmitted bypriority, a list 72 of sets of circulated node information identifier,role information identifier and user information identifier, and otherarbitrary attribute in the respective identifiers of the documentmanagement information. The arbitrary attribute thereof is defined inthe circulation control unit and is added by the circulation controlunit 14 upon preparation of the document management information and forexample can be used to set the condition upon branch of the circulationroute or to set information which the user wants to deliver during thecirculation except the document. Further, the list of circulated nodes,roles and users is used upon the above "recursion". The historyinformation can be used instead of the above information, while when theabove information is utilized for only the "recursion", the previousinformation can be superscribed upon transmission to the same node atand after the second time to thereby reduce an amount of information tobe stored. Further, information for the "recursion" can be constitutedby only the node and the user, only the node group and the user, andonly the role and the user to thereby reduce an amount of information.

As described above, according to the embodiment, since the user at thetransmission destination can be automatically decided by the system inaccordance with the previously defined circulation control informationat the previously defined burden or rate or in accordance with theselected designation of the user who has processed the circular documentbefore without confirmation of a specific user at the transmissiondestination by the transmitting person, the operation procedure of thetransmitting person relative to the transmission of document can besimplified.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram schematically illustrating the functionalconfiguration of a second embodiment of the electronic documentcirculating system of the present invention. In FIG. 9, a circulationcontrol information store unit 81 in which circulation controlinformation for controlling which user receives an electronic circulardocument and to which user the received document is transmitted ispreviously stored, a role definition information store unit 82 in whichthe role definition information for relating a role to a plurality ofusers is previously stored, and a document management information storeunit 83 in which the document management information for managing adocument to be circulated is stored are connected to a circulationcontrol unit 84 which refers to the circulation control information andthe role definition information to decide a next transmissiondestination and transmit the circular document. The configuration ofFIG. 9 is different from that of FIG. 2 in that the role definitioninformation store unit 82 includes an unprocessed document informationstore unit 82'.

The operation attending on a request of starting the circulation of adocument from a client in this embodiment is the same as that shown inthe flow chart of FIG. 3 and accordingly description thereof is omitted.

Operation of the document transmission processing after preparation ofthe document in this embodiment is now described.

The circulation control unit 84 receives an identifier of the documentmanagement information from the transmission request queue and thenreceives the circulation control information coincident with anidentifier of the circulation control information in the documentmanagement information from the circulation control information storeunit 81. The node information coincident with an identifier of thecurrent node information in the document management information isretrieved from the circulation control information and an identifier ofthe next node information is acquired. Thereafter, the next nodeinformation is retrieved from the circulation control information toacquire the next role name (that is, this means the definition of thedocument in which a method for selecting a user in the role is notdesignated) of the transmission destination. Further, when thecirculation control unit 84 receives the role definition informationcoincident with the next role name of the transmission destination fromthe role definition information store unit 82, the circulation controlunit 84 sets the identification of the role and the identifier of thenode relative to the role to the document management information. Afterthe identifier of the document management information is set to the listof unprocessed documents of the role information, the documentmanagement information is deleted from the transmission request queue.Then, after the above process is repeated until the transmission requestqueue is reduced to zero, the transmission request queue is monitored atintervals of one second, for example. With the above processingoperation, operation of the document transmission process is completed.

Operation responsive to the request of taking out the document in therole by the user (client) in this embodiment is now described.

When the user requires the list of roles from the related client, thecirculation control unit 84 of the server receives the user informationcoincident with the identifier of the requiring user from the roledefinition information store unit 82. Thereafter, the list of roleinformation relative to the user information is acquired by retrievingthe relation information and the list is returned to the requiring user.Subsequently, when the user selects one of roles from the list of therole information and requires the list 92 of unprocessed documents inthe role, the circulation control unit 84 of the server retrieves thedesignated role information and receives the list of unprocesseddocuments from the unprocessed document information store unit 82' toreturn the list of unprocessed documents to the user. Further, when theuser selects one document from the list of unprocessed documents andrequires to take out the document from the role, the circulation controlunit 84 of the server deletes the identifier of the document managementinformation corresponding to the selected document from the list ofunprocessed documents of the role information and adds it to the list ofunprocessed document of the user information. Thereafter, the name ofthe requiring user is set to the document management information.Finally, the user performs the acquirement request to the document takenout from the role. The operation corresponding to the acquirementrequest is the same as that of steps 44 to 47 in FIG. 5 and accordinglydescription thereof is omitted. With the above processing operation, theoperation responsive to the request of taking out the document in therole by the client is completed.

There is a case where after the user has performed the request of takingout the document in the role, the document is not processed and isreturned to the role due to any reason. Operation responsive to therequest of returning the document in the role by the user (client) inthis embodiment is now described.

When the user performs the request of returning the acquired document inthe role without processing of the document, the circulation controlunit 84 of the server receives the identifier of the role from thedocument management information of the designated document and deletesthe identifier of the document management information from the list ofunprocessed documents of the user information of the user who hasreturned the document to the role. Further, the circulation control unit84 adds it to the list of unprocessed documents of the role informationof the role and initializes the identifier of the user information ofthe document management information. With the above processingoperation, the operation responsive to the request of returning thedocument to the role by the client is completed.

The configuration of the circular information stored in the circulationcontrol information store unit 81 is the same as that of FIG. 6, whileit is assumed that "no transmission to the user (#autodeliver #no)" isset as the selection method of the user in the circulation informationfile. Further, when "no transmission to the user and recursive("autodeliver #no #recursive group 1)" is set, the document can betransmitted by taking out by the user at the transmission destination atthe first time of the node and can be transmitted directly to the usertaken out at the first time at and after the second time.

FIG. 10 shows an example of the role information of the role definitioninformation stored in the role definition information store units 82 and82' in the second embodiment of the electronic document circulatingsystem of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 10, a role informationtable 91 includes role identifiers "C0000015", "C0000020" and "C0000021"and the role information having the role names of "preparation","examination" and "approval" is stored in the respective roleidentifiers. A list 92 of identifiers of the document managementinformation of unprocessed documents is stored in each of the roleidentifiers.

FIG. 11 shows an example of the user information of the role definitioninformation stored in the role definition information store unit 82 inthe second embodiment of the electronic document circulating system ofthe present invention. As shown in FIG. 11, the user information table101 stores a user type for distinguishing whether the user is the systemmanager or the common user in addition to the user identifier, the username and the list of identifiers of the document management informationof unprocessed documents.

The other information stored in the role definition information storeunit and the document management information stored in the documentmanagement information store unit have the same configuration as in thefirst embodiment.

As described above, according to the embodiment, the document istransmitted to the role in accordance with the previously definedcirculation control information without confirming the user at thespecific transmission destination by the transmitting person and thedocument is taken out and returned in response to the request of anyuser in the role.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram schematically illustrating the functionalconfiguration of a third embodiment of the electronic documentcirculating system of the present invention. In FIG. 12, a documentmanagement information store unit 113 for storing the documentmanagement information for managing document to be circulated isconnected to a temporary circulation control information store unit 115,and a circulation control information store unit 111 in whichcirculation control information for controlling which user receives anelectronic circular document and to which user the received document istransmitted is previously stored, a role definition information storeunit 112 in which the role definition information for relating a role toa plurality of users is previously stored, and the document managementinformation store unit 113 are connected to a circulation control unit114 which refers to the temporary circulation control information in thetemporary circulation control information store unit 115, thecirculation control information and the role definition information todecide a next transmission destination and transmit the circulardocument.

The operation attending on the request of starting the circulation of adocument from the client in this embodiment is the same as in the flowchart of FIG. 3 and the document transmission operation is the same asin the flow chart of FIG. 4. Accordingly, description thereof isomitted.

Operation responsive to the consultation request from the client toanother user in this embodiment is now described.

When the consultation request is performed, the user (consulting user)acquires one document from the list of unprocessed documents andrequires the list of users in order to consult with another user aboutthe document. The circulation control unit 114 retrieves all usersstored in the role definition information store unit 112 and returns thelist of users to the consulting user. The consulting user selects aspecific user (consulted user) from the list of users and requires toconsult with the consulted user. The circulation control unit 114 addsidentifiers of the user information of the designated consulted user andthe consulting user to the list 115 in the temporary circulation controlinformation in response to the consultation requirement. Further, thecirculation control unit 114 deletes the identifier of the documentmanagement information of the document to be consulted from the list ofunprocessed documents of the consulting users and adds it to the list ofunprocessed documents of the consulted user. At this time, thecirculation control unit 114 does not set the user name, the node name,the role name and the like in the deleted and added document managementinformation. Further, there is a method in which when the return requestto the role described in the second embodiment is performed by theconsulted user in error, the presence of a pointer to the temporarycirculation control information store unit 115 is examined in order todetect this request and when there is no pointer, control is made to bereturned to the role.

The consulted user acquires the document to be consulted by means of theusual operation for acquiring the list of unprocessed documents. Whenthe consultation request is performed to still another user, a nextconsulted user is selected from the list of users in the same manner asabove. Further, when the processing relative to the consultation iscompleted, the request for returning the document to the consulting useris performed.

When the consulted user performs the request for returning the documentto the consulting user, the circulation control unit 114 receives theinformation recorded in the last of the list 115 in the temporarycirculation control information and investigates the user information ofthe last consulting user. The identifier of the document managementinformation of the document is deleted from the list of unprocesseddocuments of the consulted user and is added to the list of unprocesseddocuments of the last consulting user. Further, the information recordedin the last of the list of the temporary circulation control informationis deleted.

With the above processing operation, the operation responsive to theconsultation request from the client to the other user is completed. Theconfiguration of the circulation control information stored in thecirculation control information store unit 111 and the informationstored in the role definition information store unit 112 is the same asin the first embodiment and description thereof is omitted.

FIG. 13 shows an example of the information stored in the documentmanagement information store unit and the temporary circulation controlinformation store unit in the third embodiment of the electronicdocument circulating system of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 13, a pointer to temporary circulation controlinformation 122 in the temporary circulation control information storeunit 115 is stored in document management information 121 in addition tothe configuration of the document management information shown in FIG.8. The temporary circulation control information 122 is a list includingthe identifier of the user information of the consulting user and theidentifier of the user information of the consulted user.

As described above, according to the embodiment, in order to consultwith another user during circulation of the document, after thetemporary circulation control information is defined and the document iscirculated to the other user, the document is returned to the consultinguser exactly and the circulation of the document can be continued inaccordance with the definition of the original circulation route.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram schematically illustrating the functionalconfiguration of a fourth embodiment of the electronic documentcirculating system of the present invention. In FIG. 14, a circulationcontrol information store unit 131 in which circulation controlinformation for controlling which user receives an electronic circulardocument and to which user the received document is transmitted ispreviously stored, a role definition information store unit 132 in whichthe role definition information for relating a role to a plurality ofusers is previously stored, and a document management information storeunit 133 in which the document management information for managing adocument to be circulated is stored are connected to a circulationcontrol unit 134 which refers to the circulation control information andthe role definition information to decide a next transmissiondestination and transmit the circular document. The configuration ofFIG. 14 is different from that of FIG. 2 in that the role definitioninformation store unit 132 and the document management information storeunit 133 include working attribute store units 132' and 133',respectively.

The request of starting the circulation of the document from the clientin the electronic document circulating system of this embodiment is thesame as in the flow chart of FIG. 3 of the embodiment 1 and accordinglydescription thereof is omitted.

Operation of modifying the working attribute of the user in thisembodiment is now described.

When the user requires to modify the user's own working attribute orwhen the user having the authority of the system manager requires tomodify another user's working attribute, the child-process of thecirculation control unit 134 of the server receives the user informationof the requiring user. When the authority is for the common user, it isconfirmed that the designated user is the user himself and the user'sworking attribute is modified as designated. With the above processingoperation, the modification operation of the user's working attribute iscompleted.

Operation of transmitting the prepared document in this embodiment isnow described.

The daemon of the circulation control unit 134 receives the identifierof the document management information from the transmission queue andacquires the transmission destination from the node information in thesame manner as above. Thus, when the transmission destination of thedocument is a user, the daemon of the circulation control unit refers tothe working attribute of the user information of the transmissiondestination. When "working is possible", the identifier of the documentmanagement information is added to the list of unprocessed documents ofthe user information and when "working is impossible", the identifier ofthe document management information is added to the list of unprocesseddocuments of the user information of the user having the authority ofthe system manager and is deleted from the transmission queue.

Further, when the transmission destination of the document is a role andhas the definition that the document is not transmitted to a userautomatically, the daemon of the circulation control unit refers to theworking attribute of the role information. When "working is possible",the identifier of the document management information is added to thelist of unprocessed documents of the role information and when "workingis impossible", the identifier of the document management information isadded to the list of unprocessed document of the user information of theuser having the authority of the system manager and is deleted from thetransmission queue. In addition, when the transmission destination ofthe document is a role and has the definition that the document istransmitted to the user in the role automatically, the daemon of thecirculation control unit 134 refers to the working attributed of therole information. When "working is possible", the identifier of thedocument management information is added to the list of unprocesseddocuments of the user information decided in accordance with theselection method and when "working is impossible", the identifier of thedocument management information is added to the list of unprocesseddocuments of the user information of the user having the authority ofthe system manager and is deleted from the transmission queue. When theuser is decided in accordance with the selection method, the circulationcontrol unit refers to the working attribute of the information relatingthe role to the user and the working attribute of the user informationand the user having "working being possible" is selected for any case.When there is no user having "working being possible" for any case,addition is made to the list of system managers in the same manner asabove. Instead of addition to the list of system managers, there are amethod of returning to the list of user information of a transmissionrequiring user and a method of adding to the list of unprocesseddocuments of the role information or the user information of thetransmission destination but incapable of acquiring the document untilthe state of "working being possible" is reached.

Further, when addition is made to the list of unprocessed documents ofthe user information of the system manager, the system manager changesthe user or role to be transmitted to the state of "working beingpossible" and designates the node of the circular route to require thetransmission of the document.

With above processing operation, the operation of transmitting thedocument is completed.

The configuration of the circulation control information in thecirculation control information store unit 131 is the same as in FIG. 6and description thereof is omitted.

FIG. 15 shows an example of information stored in the role definitioninformation store unit in a fourth embodiment of the electronic documentcirculating system of the present invention and shows the roleinformation, the user information and the relation information of therole and the user in the role definition information store unit 132.Other information has the same configuration as in FIG. 7 anddescription thereof is omitted. As shown in FIG. 15, each of the roleinformation 141, the user information 142 and the relation information143 of the role and the user includes the working attribute in additionto the same configuration as in the second embodiment. The configurationof the document management information stored in the document managementinformation store unit 133 is the same as in FIG. 8 and descriptionthereof is omitted.

As described above, according to the embodiments, the user who cannotprocess the document for certain reasons does not define a proxy andsets the user information of the user to the state of "working beingimpossible", so that when the document to be transmitted to the role istransmitted, the document can be controlled to be transmitted to anotheruser in the role and when the document to be transmitted to the user istransmitted, the document can be controlled not to be transmitted to theuser. Further, the whole role can be set to the state of "working beingimpossible", so that the document can be controlled not to betransmitted to the role, and a certain user can be set to the state of"working being impossible" for only a specific role, so that only thedocument to another role or the document to the user can be controlledto be transmitted to the user.

We claim:
 1. An electronic document circulating system for circulatingan electronic circular document among users in a network system in whicha server machine and a plurality of client machines which a plurality ofusers can utilize respectively are interconnected through a network,comprising:a circulation control information store unit for storing aplurality of types of circulation control information for specifying aplurality of predetermined circular routes of the circular document,each of said circular routes being indicated by a plurality of nodes, atleast one operation process of said node being defined by a role, wherea plurality of users who perform equal processing operation are namedsaid role generically; a role definition information store unit forstoring role definition information relative to said role; and adocument management information store unit for storing documentmanagement information relative to the circular document to becirculated; wherein when a circulation start request of a circulardocument is received through a related client from a user who designatesone circular route and said circular document is then transmitted to thenode defined by the role in said designated circular route, acirculation control unit in said server machine selects one user in saidrole on the basis of contents of said circulation control informationstore unit and said role definition information store unit and transmitssaid circular document to said user.
 2. An electronic documentcirculating system according to claim 1, wherein each type of saidcirculation control information includes information indicative of atleast one selection criterion necessary to select one user from saidrole.
 3. An electronic document circulating system according to claim 2,wherein said selection criterion includes a "random" selection criterionfor selecting one user at random from the users in said role.
 4. Anelectronic document circulating system according to claim 2, whereinsaid selection criterion includes a "sequence" selection criterion andeach type of said circulation control information includes informationindicative of a user who has transmitted the circular document at thelast time in said role, said circulation control unit selecting a nextuser of said user who has transmitted the circular document at the lasttime from a list of users in said role when one user is selected on thebasis of said "sequence" selection criterion.
 5. An electronic documentcirculating system according to claim 2, wherein said selectioncriterion includes a "allocation rate" selection criterion for weightingeach of the users in said role in accordance with a predeterminedallocation rate and then selecting one user from the users at random. 6.An electronic document circulating system according to claim 2, whereinsaid selection criterion includes a "burden" selection criterion forpreviously setting a burden of a process to each of the users in saidrole and selecting a user having a largest difference between the setburden and a current burden.
 7. An electronic document circulatingsystem according to claim 2, wherein said selection criterion includes a"recursive" selection criterion and said document management informationincludes information indicative of a user who has processed saidcircular document at the last time in said role, said circulationcontrol unit referring to said document management information togetherwith said circulation control information on the basis of said"recursive" selection criterion and selecting as a user at atransmission destination the user who has processed said circulardocument at the last time from a list of users in said role.
 8. Anelectronic document circulating system according to claim 2, whereinsaid selection criterion includes a "priority order" selection criterionand said document management information includes information indicativeof a user who processes the document by priority in said role, saidcirculation control unit referring to said document managementinformation together with said circulation control information on thebasis of said "priority order" selection criterion and selecting as auser at a transmission destination the user who processes the documentby priority from a list of users in said role.
 9. An electronic documentcirculating system according to claim 1, wherein said role definitioninformation includes a list of unprocessed documents in said role andsaid circulation control unit responds to a reception request of anunprocessed document from a user who belongs to said role and designatesone of unprocessed documents in said role to transmit said designatedunprocessed document to the user requiring the reception.
 10. Anelectronic document circulating system according to claim 9, whereinsaid role definition information includes a list of unprocesseddocuments of each of the users in said role and said circulation controlunit deletes the unprocessed document required to be received, from thelist of unprocessed documents in said role and adds the unprocesseddocument required to be received, to the list of unprocessed documentsof the user requiring the reception.
 11. An electronic documentcirculating system according to claim 10, wherein said circulationcontrol unit responds to a return request to said role of theunprocessed document required to be received, from the user requiringthe reception to delete the unprocessed document required to bereceived, from the list of unprocessed documents of the user requiringthe reception and add the unprocessed document required to be received,to the list of unprocessed documents in said role.
 12. An electronicdocument circulating system according to claim 1, wherein said documentmanagement information includes a temporary pair of a requiring user anda user at a transmission destination of said document deviated from thedesignated circular route and said circulation control unit refers tosaid temporary pair of the requiring user and the user at thetransmission destination of said document in said document managementinformation to transmit said circular document to the user at thetransmission destination and then responds to a transmission request ofsaid circular document from the user at the transmission destination totransmit said circular document to the transmission destination tothereby complete a temporary circulation of the document.
 13. Anelectronic document circulating system according to claim 12, wherein aplurality of temporary pairs of the requiring users and the users at thetransmission destination of the document constitute a chain and saidcirculation control unit traces said chain of said plurality oftemporary pairs of the requiring users and the user at the transmissiondestination of the document to thereby perform the temporary circulationof the document.
 14. An electronic document circulating system accordingto claim 1, wherein said role definition information includes workingpossible information indicating whether each of the users in said rolecan receive the circular document or not and when said circular documentis transmitted to the node defined in the role in the designatedcircular route, said circulation control unit selects one user in saidrole from the users having said working possible information indicatingthat working is possible to transmit the circular document to saidselected user.
 15. An electronic document circulating system accordingto claim 1, wherein said role definition information includes workingpossible information indicating whether the role can receive thecircular document or not and when the circular document is transmittedto the node defined in the role in the designated circular route, saidcirculation control unit confirms that the role includes said workingpossible information indicating that working is possible and thenselects one user in the role to transmit the circular document to saidselected user.
 16. An electronic document circulating system accordingto claim 14, wherein said role definition information includes user typeinformation indicating whether each of the users in said role is amanager or not and the user having said user type information indicativeof the manager can modify said working possible information.
 17. Anelectronic document circulating system according to claim 15, whereinsaid role definition information includes user type informationindicating whether each of the users in said role is a manager or notand the user having said user type information indicative of the managercan modify said working possible information.